Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Monday, February 2, 2009
Are we still safe?
Chernobyl Tragedy (26 April 1986)
"A technology-caused disaster is the breakdown of a technological system due to human action which could result in harm to people and all creation. The response to a technology-caused disaster includes prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery. The response to a technology-caused disaster does not include providing food, clothing, temporary shelter, blankets and other material resources."
A technology-caused disaster can be an accidental spill, a deliberate or careless release, an illegal or badly designed disposal or storage area, or a leak from such an area. It can be a transportation accident, "sick" buildings, or workplace or mining hazards that get out of control. The affected elements can be air, soil, water, and animals in the human food chain -- and the human body.
These are some disasters and tregdies caused by technology.
Toxic risks remain in Louisiana
EPA to sample for WTC dust
Post-9/11 needs surfacing
Three dead after Hawaii dam break
Can you we still say that we are SAFE?
Friday, January 23, 2009
Multimedia Works Vol 2
This is the second batch of my exercises in Multimedia subject.
The first one is composting two images. In the photo the first raw image is a galaxy on fire and the second one is earth image wherein it hit an asteroid. The result is great and truly a work of art.
The second image is Sheer Effect Application. The text in the bottle is blended within its curve so that it will look like it is really on the surface of the bottle.
The third one is about creating a sprayed strokes border effect. The image is wonderful especially the person in the image. It really mind-blowing.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Multimedia Works
I just want to display my exercises in my subject: Multimedia. I hope I got it right though.
This first one is a 3D button. Well it looks like button to me.
This one is a combination of two images. It is superimposing an image to another image.
This last one is about beveling and embossing an image or button.
I just hope that I have good grades for this. I am not good with graphics.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Basic guidelines for designing organizational website
Electronic commerce has evidently effective for large and small companies. They have created advancement for enterprises. Eventually, electronic commerce have been a great help and it became a sole medium for companies to have business connection over the internet.
Creating a business-oriented e-commerce website is not a piece of cake. You need to have patience and perseverance as both programmer and designer. There should be escalation of steps and rules to be followed in order to be successful in designing it.
Neat and Clean but Attractive and Organized (Layout Design)
As for starters, this should be the first rule that a designer should implement. Yes, a website should be neat and clean. Just like any other interrelated things. But because it is an organizational website, it should not have extra things. Like unnecessary page elements and advertisements (banners, skyscrapers, etc.) A clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances a site's looks. Try to keep the focus on your content, use a template for this. Use fonts that will be available on all computers to prevent your site looking messed up. A simple design layout makes it easier for you to build your website. The end result will be a website which your visitors will find easy to navigate and easy get whatever information they want. If your design look complicated - redesign and simplify it. Complicated design layout will not only make it harder for you to build your web pages, it may also confuse your visitors if your site is full of complicated mess of information. Be consistent throughout in your design approach. The background, color usage and text format should be carefully chosen and the screen layout for all your pages visibly consistent. Create a simple logo to identity your website. Have a captivating tag line somewhere with the header, and write an About Us page which describes the uniqueness of your website. These will leave an impression for your visitors to remember your website. Make a copyright statement at the bottom of you web pages. Have a clear color scheme based on the theme of your website. Choose carefully a set of colors you use for your background, text, border, tables and cells etc. The color scheme expresses the characters of your website and makes it unique and attractive. For ease of reading, the length of a text lines should not exceed certain width within the computer screen. To limit the length of a line of text, use indent text or use a table with the pre-set width. Long blocks of text passages can be tedious and strenuous to read. Try to use short sentences, short paragraphs and bulleted or numbered list form to break them up. The width of you web pages should preferably not exceed that of the computer screen. People viewing your site usually don’t mind scrolling up and down the screen; but will be annoyed when they have to scroll left and right. Font size: use larger size font; Bear in mind that some of your visitors may have poor eyesight; some may have partial impaired vision and some ordinary people who just can’t stand reading tiny script on the computer screen. he text color should contrast well with the background color to be easily read. Likewise, Background image or texture chosen should contrast well with the text color, so that it is easy to read on screen. It looks great on the screen and soothing to the eyes. But it is not recommended to use white text on a dark background. When somebody wants to print out your page for reference, it won't print because the background will not be printed; while the white text is printed on white paper, you see nothing. The images you put in a web page are not there just for decoration. They should be relevant and necessary to use as visual to help to convey the message, or serve to break a long and monotonous text messages. Limit the size of an image you insert in a web page. Large image takes longer time to display, and most visitors don’t like to wait too long to view a certain image. Choose your text and background colours carefully. A general rule is to use dark text against a light background. Remember to make the text large enough to be easily read. Keep your page layout neat and tidy and avoid using animations: they can be distracting and in some cases slow down the load time of your pages. Remember, the more complicated you make your pages, the more likely people will give up and click away: keep it simple. Make sure your pages can be viewed without the need to scroll horizontally across the screen. Vertical scrolling is acceptable however.
Easy Navigation
Navigation of links on your site plays a big role in determining the stickiness of your site (how long your visitor stays and explores your site). Ask yourself this, What do visitors do as soon as they open your site? They would probably read the content of the present page and then look around to find any other page that interests them. Ensure that the visitors get around navigating your website with ease. They should be able to find what they are looking for in quickly and get there. Use a menu or image map, a site map, arrows, links and buttons to provide direction to your visitors. Make sure the pages are interlinked for easy navigation. Links should be well organized, strategically placed and easy to detect by using appropriate colors. Use anchor links to facilitate navigation on the same page. Always check for any broken links and fix them. A clean layout and neat navigation and using a lot of white space for your site enhances its looks. Try to keep the focus on your content. That is why we recommend using dreamweaver templates for your site - all pages or a group of pages have one basic design and only the content varies - this way even if your site is a little distracting due to necessary effects, your design is noted once (hopefully with a appreciative eye :-) and then the visitor focused on the content automatically. Prepare your site navigation before designing to prevent cluttering up the site with forgotten links. If you have too many links then you should use drop-down menus or flyouts for your main topics. If you have Fireworks or Dreamweaver then macromedia drop-down menus are one of their most popular in-built "Behaviors". Otherwise you can use our own copy-paste code for drop-down menus in the article SmartWebby Drop-down Menus (This article is part of our Simple DHTML Guide a collection of copy-paste DHTML snippets written especially for designers). The navigation should be flexible enough to accommodate any amount of additional links in case you probably will be adding pages periodically. For this using drop-down menus or section home pages is a must. Keep your main links together as much as possible so that visitors can absorb them at one shot and know what your site conveys about your company. Check out how all our major links appear in our top navigation bar and all related section links are listed in the right hand side menu. If you like a graphic intensive site and find there is not much space for accommodating all your links, you can have a separate home (splash) page and all other pages as content pages. Thus your home page can have visual appeal and your inner content pages can have elaborate navigation structures while focusing on the content. Use your navigation space efficiently. Use short, clear and precise words in your links so that your visitors know what the corresponding page will contain. Make sure you check your site for Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Opera 7.0 and Netscape Navigator 6+ as they constitute 95% of the worlds browsers.
Optimum Load Time
It is important to have a reasonably fast loading web site so that viewers are not made to wait for a long time and to accommodate users on slow internet connections. Search engine algorithms also do take into consideration your load time. Make sure your load time is low. For this you must: Minimize Graphics, Flash and scripts: They hugely increase your file size. Optimize your HTML & script code: Make sure that your site doesn't have any unwanted tags or unused scripts. Use Server Side Include (SSI) files where ever possible. SSI files once called from the web server reside in its cache so on subsequent requests they load faster. Design using nested tables instead of using cell merges and splits. Use separate tables where ever possible. Not designing for 100% height is better as if you use just one outer table, the web page is displayed only after the table is loaded fully. If many outer tables are present [you can have different tables for the header, content, footer, etc. the page displays the content of each table as soon as its elements are loaded. Keep the size of a web page small so that it will open up fast - preferably less than 10 seconds. If the page is too long, have too many items to load and slow to display, you should consider breaking it into smaller pages and link them up. Contents such as video, audio, flash animations etc. are huge in size. They will slow down the display of the page. If it takes too long for to load a page, the viewers might give up and leave. They also use up more of your bandwidth. As much as possible optimize heavy graphics, Flash files and scripts. In editors like fireworks and flash you can see the various options in the preview panel to reduce the sizes. See how popular web sites like google and yahoo have pages that are very small in size and thus load in seconds. Most fast loading sites have very simple designs. Take the hint! Complicated designs will slow down your pages. In case you find yourself having very long pages of content, break them down into separate sections and thus bring down the sizes of the individual pages. Basically try to make use of HTML as much as possible. Use CSS Styles for text links to make them as attractive as buttons.
Reference:
http://www.great-web-design-tips.com/
http://www.wickedinnovations.com/blog/?p=25
http://webhostph.com/web-design/
http://www.immediasite.com/Successful_Website_Tips.htm
The present and the future…
There are thousands of technologies that still on going and up coming. Eventually, in all aspects of it, there is innovation and development. Nowadays, a number of technologies are rapidly booming for advancement. This includes mobile phones, computers, transportation, gadgets, space technology and many others.
I think that is the way humans need to live. Being satisfied is like being buried six feet under the ground. Just like technology, it will never be satisfied. It is constant for innovation.
Today: What’s new?
In today’s trend, technology has been diverted into much higher quality of generation.
In mobile phone technology, a number of high quality cellular phones that are now in the market. This includes:
Motorola’s trio: the A3100, Tundra VA76 and the recycled W233 handset.
The most worthy of the bunch is the W233, a carbon neutral handset made from recycled water bottles would you believe, which at least makes a change from recycling handset designs. Not much in terms of features though, the list headed up by a long talk time of 9 hours, a microSD slot and not much else. Still, at least you are saving the planet. At the other end of the scale is the A3100, a touchscreen device powered by Windows Mobile, packing a 2.8-inch display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3 megapixel camera. File that under 'promising'. Finally, the Tundra VA76 is a rugged phone for rugged folk, offering a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, HSDPA connectivity, push-to-talk and CrystalTalk Plus for cutting down on the background noise. Interesting, quirky but none are really packing that all-important wow factor.
In Nokia company there is their newest handset, the Nokia N96. It has a 16 gigabyte of internal memory and microSD memory card slot (hot swappable) for expandability and flexibility. A 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory (operating system plus dynamic user data area).
Samsung has impressed us more than once in the past year, and has the highest level proved that they deserve place as the world’s second largest mobile manufacturer. One of the highlights in the 2008’s has been testing the new Gt-I8510 Samsung cell phone. There is not much to complain about this phone. This cellular is taking to the absolute total of wireless mobile technology, and gives you both GPS, super-3G and opportunities to connect to your wireless home network. Array of new tools that make I8510 very well suited as work phone. Samsung has licensed the opportunity for Nokia S60 interface, which offers wealth of good planning and organization features. With 16 GB of memory should also be good to run out of space. This is as much as the new version of Apple iPhones 3G, and keep, for example, to just over 8,000 pictures taken with the integrated camera.
In transportation, constant change of technology is also present. We have now electric cars. An electric car is a car powered by an electric motor rather than a gasoline engine. Electric cars are something that show up in the news all the time. Electric cars create less pollution than gasoline-powered cars, so they are an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles (especially in cities). Vehicles powered by fuel cells are electric cars, and fuel cells are getting a lot of attention right now in the news. The Subaru R1e electric car can be charged overnight on an ordinary household current. It has a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 62 miles per hour. From the outside, you would probably have no idea that a car is electric. In most cases, electric cars are created by converting a gasoline-powered car, and in that case it is impossible to tell. When you drive an electric car, often the only thing that clues you in to its true nature is the fact that it is nearly silent. Every father is waiting in the wings for the day when they can automate the driving on that long car ride to the Grand Canyon, climb into the back seat and smack some sense into his behaviorally challenged kids. Doing this without having to pull over the smart car is every kid’s nightmare and every parent’s dream. A recent contest dubbed the Grand Challenge by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrates that there are still several obstacles to overcome before automated smart vehicles could become a reality. The Grand Challenge, not unlike contests sponsored by the X-Prize Foundation, is offering cash for advancements in this field, in the hopes of developing unmanned combat vehicles in response to a 2015 congressional mandate. Although several universities and industries have demonstrated great strides while competing, it is unlikely personal transport will benefit until years of testing and field trials by the military.
For computer technology, mobile phones and computers are now jabbed into one. There is this Motorola Symbol MC9090 Industrial Mobile Computer which is developed by the Motorola company and is now available in the market. Its CPU is Intel® XScale™ Bulverde PXA270 processor at 624 MHz and the operating system is Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 or Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Premium Edition. Building on the success of the MC9000 family, the MC9090-G rugged mobile computer from Motorola provides mobile workers throughout the supply chain with a flexible always-on data connection to critical business applications and systems as well as to co-workers and other business associates. Equipped with the latest advances in mobile technology, the MC9090-G provides support for the richest enterprise applications, empowering mobile workers to capture and access critical business information in real time. Whether your application is simple or complex, the MC9090-G delivers performance you can count on. The MC9090-G offers the latest Intel processor designed to handle the specific demands of mobility, as well as robust persistent storage capabilities and multiple advanced data capture options. A choice of the two most robust Microsoft operating systems — Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows CE 5.0 — gives you the flexibility to select either a familiar feature rich environment or a robust customizable application specific environment. The ability to capture images and bar codes from as close as four inches to as far as 40 feet, enables enterprises to deploy a single device in many business areas. Workers can count on ample battery life for a full shift through superior power management. And modular keypads, a rugged touch panel and a display that is easy to read inside and outside provide users with maximum ease-of use and comfort. If you want a present day expert on the subject of computer consciousness, the man to call is Ray Kurzweil. His books The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, and Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, are remarkable tales from a man who is obviously afraid to die. Kurzweil believes in short that human consciousness will be fused with technology, and will therefore, bring us one step closer to immortality. That is, until your hard drive crashes. Kurzweil’s predictions set the stage for a monumental occasion that is to happen within the next 50 years. This is a side step from the traditional theories surrounding computer consciousness where robotic entities develop awareness. Whatever the tipping point might be, and however it is envisioned through Kurzweil’s books, the eyes of other futurists and science fiction authors, I doubt it will ever happen. There is already something special about my soul without the Intel logo stamped across it.
In health and medicine, Marrow Harvest presents a new technique in which marrow cells can be extracted from a patient's bloodstream without the need for surgery, a welcome alternative to painful bone marrow extraction; Cell Selection how scientists have developed an ingenious system to separate good cells from bad ones using electricity; Light Cure is a new instrument focuses a light on cancerous cells that have been soaked with a cream painlessly curing certain skin cancers; Oncological Frogs carry cancer-killing venom which can eliminate cancerous cells. Fatty Heart a new and simple test for the chemical hydro peroxide offers an indication of the risk to life from a heart attack; Vibrating Arteries a safe new method using a vibrating catheter, its gentle oscillation breaks down dangerous fatty tissue in veins; Miniature Miracle a miniature ultrasound probe, so small it can be guided along arteries, proves better than x-rays to surgeons; Deep Vein Screener a simple checking of veins to avoid thrombosis during an operation; Powerbreathe new exercise device, excellent for asthmatics, helps people exercise their breathing muscles; Breathing Easier a new heat exchanger for the home kills dust mites, making breathing healthier, especially for asthmatics. There are numerous robots that can emulate living biological organisms mechanically, but the prospects for fusing robotics with human biological systems in order to craft new appendages are low. Our bodies contain a complex immune system that rejects the introduction of foreign objects into our bodies, and that makes it difficult to attach mechanical devices to flesh and bone. This is especially true with arms and legs, where multiple nerve centers, muscle fibers and veins coexist. Artificial heart and lung transplants have been successful in many instances, but the quality of life is diminished and life expectancy is negligible. It is certain that eventual attempts to devise and attach artificial robotic limbs would result in limited motion and reduced mobility. Although the technology is well worth the research and attention, it will be some time before external prosthetics are replaced. It may even be more realistic to assume engineering tissue for growing a new arm or leg is a better investment. Cryogenic hibernation received a revival of sorts in 2002 when the baseball great Ted Williams was suspended in liquid nitrogen at Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. The controversy was full of cock-and-bull stories and allegations surrounding the procedure and the probability that anyone could be brought back to life eons from now. I’m here to tell you, it ain’t going to happen. Since William’s head was separated from his body, it has cracked in several places and his torso remains suspended in liquid nitrogen. Even after a century of medical advances, I doubt more than a tissue sample will survive the freezing process for people like William who are placed in cryogenic chambers. Even if an individual were to be frozen mid-breath, the human biological makeup is not stable enough to endure subzero temperatures for extended periods.
In space exploration, According to the following MSNBC Web site article, the estimated dollar amount required to bring the International Space Station (ISS) to full completion will be $100 billion. This is a hefty delta from the original estimate of approximately $14 billion provided by NASA in the early 1980s. Excuse me for being pessimistic, but unless there is gold among them there stars, I think it’s time to pull the cord. Measuring the benefits of colonizing the moon or another remote planet like Mars is a practice in fuzzy logic. A cornerstone of the debate was once centered around necessity due to overpopulation, but the steam has gone out of that engine. As we have seen by the successes brought about by the X-Prize, subspace intercontinental flight will become a commercialized standard decades before space colonization.
What’s next: the future?
True volumetric holographic 3D display
“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” This desperate plea by the quintessential damsel in distress was overshadowed by R2-D2, and the android’s ability to cast an amazing likeness of Princes Leia in true volumetric 3D. This projection into thin air has captivated techies for years, and we dream of the day when we can gather around the holo-display to enjoy Survivor while in the midst of the jungle ourselves.
Even though we have seen a hint of possibility, these are only illusions masking our inability to harness light and color in order to display an image with volume. Currently, projections of any sort require a backdrop that can reflect the light. Several attempts have been made to eliminate this obstruction by using transparent displays. More recently, a heliodisplay was unveiled that transforms air in order to float a free-form video.
Invisibility cloaking
In 2003, Professor of Engineering Susumu Tachi duped us all and sent the media and Internet into a whirlwind with his luminous jacket. This sideshow was to be a predecessor to the much anticipated arrival of an invisibility cloak. Even though many of us were foiled by the grandstanding, the attention Tachi garnered was a testament to our deepest desires — there are times when we all want to be unseen.
In July, 2006, a reporter from Reuters published a piece on theoretical metamaterials with unusual properties that could bend light around an object, thus making it invisible. The sociological ramifications of inventing such a device are too many to discuss in this article, but it’s obvious there would be several parties interested. Our ability to understand and demonstrate a pseudo-technology that has some commercial application may be closer at hand, but authentic invisibility cloaking devices are still for Predators and Klingons.
Teleportation of animate objects
According to www.howstuffworks.com,
“In 1993, the idea of teleportation moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the world of theoretical possibility. It was then that physicist Charles Bennett and a team of researchers at IBM confirmed that quantum teleportation was possible, but only if the original object being teleported was destroyed.”
Huh, that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. I do not claim to be an expert on quantum teleportation, but hey, how many people are? What I do know is that in reading this article, it is readily apparent that what goes in is not what comes out — much like Brundlefly.
Teleportation would also mutate the world’s economy by allowing instantaneous travel, and the teleportation of food. At first glance this is seemingly a pleasant change. However, what would stop teleportation of objects of destruction, including chemical and biological agents, as well as weapons of ma… oh well, you get the point.
Time travel
Ah, the granddaddy of them all — time travel. The number of theories and speculative reports is staggering, and there is nothing to be said that hasn’t already been stated more eloquently by the scientific elite. These explanations of time are mixed with interesting paradoxes and parallel universes, and even for the nerd impaired, this knowledge of time travel can generate addictive conversation.
The best place to start learning about time travel is to use your search engine of choice. Then ask yourself, (even though in this lifetime you will never get a second chance to make a first impression), if it were a possibility, why would you want to travel back in time? Ask your family, ask your friends, ask your boss — the answers you get back will give you some sense of why time travel is not just subject matter for the übergeek.
References:
http://www.t3.com/ces/news/motorola-mobiles-hands-on-gallery-at-ces-2009?=37755
http://www.nokia.com.ph/A41179208
http://www.samsung.com/ph/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car
http://www.nextag.com/latest-computer-technology/search-html
Read more...
Human beings will never satisfy…
I think that is the way humans need to live. Being satisfied is like being buried six feet under the ground. Just like technology, it will never be satisfied. It is constant for innovation.
Today: What’s new?
In today’s trend, technology has been diverted into much higher quality of generation.
In mobile phone technology, a number of high quality cellular phones that are now in the market. This includes:
Motorola’s trio: the A3100, Tundra VA76 and the recycled W233 handset.
The most worthy of the bunch is the W233, a carbon neutral handset made from recycled water bottles would you believe, which at least makes a change from recycling handset designs. Not much in terms of features though, the list headed up by a long talk time of 9 hours, a microSD slot and not much else. Still, at least you are saving the planet. At the other end of the scale is the A3100, a touchscreen device powered by Windows Mobile, packing a 2.8-inch display, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 3 megapixel camera. File that under 'promising'. Finally, the Tundra VA76 is a rugged phone for rugged folk, offering a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, HSDPA connectivity, push-to-talk and CrystalTalk Plus for cutting down on the background noise. Interesting, quirky but none are really packing that all-important wow factor.
In Nokia company there is their newest handset, the Nokia N96. It has a 16 gigabyte of internal memory and microSD memory card slot (hot swappable) for expandability and flexibility. A 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory (operating system plus dynamic user data area).
Samsung has impressed us more than once in the past year, and has the highest level proved that they deserve place as the world’s second largest mobile manufacturer. One of the highlights in the 2008’s has been testing the new Gt-I8510 Samsung cell phone. There is not much to complain about this phone. This cellular is taking to the absolute total of wireless mobile technology, and gives you both GPS, super-3G and opportunities to connect to your wireless home network. Array of new tools that make I8510 very well suited as work phone. Samsung has licensed the opportunity for Nokia S60 interface, which offers wealth of good planning and organization features. With 16 GB of memory should also be good to run out of space. This is as much as the new version of Apple iPhones 3G, and keep, for example, to just over 8,000 pictures taken with the integrated camera.
In transportation, constant change of technology is also present. We have now electric cars. An electric car is a car powered by an electric motor rather than a gasoline engine. Electric cars are something that show up in the news all the time. Electric cars create less pollution than gasoline-powered cars, so they are an environmentally friendly alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles (especially in cities). Vehicles powered by fuel cells are electric cars, and fuel cells are getting a lot of attention right now in the news. The Subaru R1e electric car can be charged overnight on an ordinary household current. It has a range of 50 miles and a top speed of 62 miles per hour. From the outside, you would probably have no idea that a car is electric. In most cases, electric cars are created by converting a gasoline-powered car, and in that case it is impossible to tell. When you drive an electric car, often the only thing that clues you in to its true nature is the fact that it is nearly silent. Every father is waiting in the wings for the day when they can automate the driving on that long car ride to the Grand Canyon, climb into the back seat and smack some sense into his behaviorally challenged kids. Doing this without having to pull over the smart car is every kid’s nightmare and every parent’s dream. A recent contest dubbed the Grand Challenge by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) demonstrates that there are still several obstacles to overcome before automated smart vehicles could become a reality. The Grand Challenge, not unlike contests sponsored by the X-Prize Foundation, is offering cash for advancements in this field, in the hopes of developing unmanned combat vehicles in response to a 2015 congressional mandate. Although several universities and industries have demonstrated great strides while competing, it is unlikely personal transport will benefit until years of testing and field trials by the military.
For computer technology, mobile phones and computers are now jabbed into one. There is this Motorola Symbol MC9090 Industrial Mobile Computer which is developed by the Motorola company and is now available in the market. Its CPU is Intel® XScale™ Bulverde PXA270 processor at 624 MHz and the operating system is Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 or Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Premium Edition. Building on the success of the MC9000 family, the MC9090-G rugged mobile computer from Motorola provides mobile workers throughout the supply chain with a flexible always-on data connection to critical business applications and systems as well as to co-workers and other business associates. Equipped with the latest advances in mobile technology, the MC9090-G provides support for the richest enterprise applications, empowering mobile workers to capture and access critical business information in real time. Whether your application is simple or complex, the MC9090-G delivers performance you can count on. The MC9090-G offers the latest Intel processor designed to handle the specific demands of mobility, as well as robust persistent storage capabilities and multiple advanced data capture options. A choice of the two most robust Microsoft operating systems — Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows CE 5.0 — gives you the flexibility to select either a familiar feature rich environment or a robust customizable application specific environment. The ability to capture images and bar codes from as close as four inches to as far as 40 feet, enables enterprises to deploy a single device in many business areas. Workers can count on ample battery life for a full shift through superior power management. And modular keypads, a rugged touch panel and a display that is easy to read inside and outside provide users with maximum ease-of use and comfort. If you want a present day expert on the subject of computer consciousness, the man to call is Ray Kurzweil. His books The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, and Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, are remarkable tales from a man who is obviously afraid to die. Kurzweil believes in short that human consciousness will be fused with technology, and will therefore, bring us one step closer to immortality. That is, until your hard drive crashes. Kurzweil’s predictions set the stage for a monumental occasion that is to happen within the next 50 years. This is a side step from the traditional theories surrounding computer consciousness where robotic entities develop awareness. Whatever the tipping point might be, and however it is envisioned through Kurzweil’s books, the eyes of other futurists and science fiction authors, I doubt it will ever happen. There is already something special about my soul without the Intel logo stamped across it.
In health and medicine, Marrow Harvest presents a new technique in which marrow cells can be extracted from a patient's bloodstream without the need for surgery, a welcome alternative to painful bone marrow extraction; Cell Selection how scientists have developed an ingenious system to separate good cells from bad ones using electricity; Light Cure is a new instrument focuses a light on cancerous cells that have been soaked with a cream painlessly curing certain skin cancers; Oncological Frogs carry cancer-killing venom which can eliminate cancerous cells. Fatty Heart a new and simple test for the chemical hydro peroxide offers an indication of the risk to life from a heart attack; Vibrating Arteries a safe new method using a vibrating catheter, its gentle oscillation breaks down dangerous fatty tissue in veins; Miniature Miracle a miniature ultrasound probe, so small it can be guided along arteries, proves better than x-rays to surgeons; Deep Vein Screener a simple checking of veins to avoid thrombosis during an operation; Powerbreathe new exercise device, excellent for asthmatics, helps people exercise their breathing muscles; Breathing Easier a new heat exchanger for the home kills dust mites, making breathing healthier, especially for asthmatics. There are numerous robots that can emulate living biological organisms mechanically, but the prospects for fusing robotics with human biological systems in order to craft new appendages are low. Our bodies contain a complex immune system that rejects the introduction of foreign objects into our bodies, and that makes it difficult to attach mechanical devices to flesh and bone. This is especially true with arms and legs, where multiple nerve centers, muscle fibers and veins coexist. Artificial heart and lung transplants have been successful in many instances, but the quality of life is diminished and life expectancy is negligible. It is certain that eventual attempts to devise and attach artificial robotic limbs would result in limited motion and reduced mobility. Although the technology is well worth the research and attention, it will be some time before external prosthetics are replaced. It may even be more realistic to assume engineering tissue for growing a new arm or leg is a better investment. Cryogenic hibernation received a revival of sorts in 2002 when the baseball great Ted Williams was suspended in liquid nitrogen at Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona. The controversy was full of cock-and-bull stories and allegations surrounding the procedure and the probability that anyone could be brought back to life eons from now. I’m here to tell you, it ain’t going to happen. Since William’s head was separated from his body, it has cracked in several places and his torso remains suspended in liquid nitrogen. Even after a century of medical advances, I doubt more than a tissue sample will survive the freezing process for people like William who are placed in cryogenic chambers. Even if an individual were to be frozen mid-breath, the human biological makeup is not stable enough to endure subzero temperatures for extended periods.
In space exploration, According to the following MSNBC Web site article, the estimated dollar amount required to bring the International Space Station (ISS) to full completion will be $100 billion. This is a hefty delta from the original estimate of approximately $14 billion provided by NASA in the early 1980s. Excuse me for being pessimistic, but unless there is gold among them there stars, I think it’s time to pull the cord. Measuring the benefits of colonizing the moon or another remote planet like Mars is a practice in fuzzy logic. A cornerstone of the debate was once centered around necessity due to overpopulation, but the steam has gone out of that engine. As we have seen by the successes brought about by the X-Prize, subspace intercontinental flight will become a commercialized standard decades before space colonization.
What’s next: the future?
True volumetric holographic 3D display
“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi; you’re my only hope.” This desperate plea by the quintessential damsel in distress was overshadowed by R2-D2, and the android’s ability to cast an amazing likeness of Princes Leia in true volumetric 3D. This projection into thin air has captivated techies for years, and we dream of the day when we can gather around the holo-display to enjoy Survivor while in the midst of the jungle ourselves.
Even though we have seen a hint of possibility, these are only illusions masking our inability to harness light and color in order to display an image with volume. Currently, projections of any sort require a backdrop that can reflect the light. Several attempts have been made to eliminate this obstruction by using transparent displays. More recently, a heliodisplay was unveiled that transforms air in order to float a free-form video.
Invisibility cloaking
In 2003, Professor of Engineering Susumu Tachi duped us all and sent the media and Internet into a whirlwind with his luminous jacket. This sideshow was to be a predecessor to the much anticipated arrival of an invisibility cloak. Even though many of us were foiled by the grandstanding, the attention Tachi garnered was a testament to our deepest desires — there are times when we all want to be unseen.
In July, 2006, a reporter from Reuters published a piece on theoretical metamaterials with unusual properties that could bend light around an object, thus making it invisible. The sociological ramifications of inventing such a device are too many to discuss in this article, but it’s obvious there would be several parties interested. Our ability to understand and demonstrate a pseudo-technology that has some commercial application may be closer at hand, but authentic invisibility cloaking devices are still for Predators and Klingons.
Teleportation of animate objects
According to www.howstuffworks.com,
“In 1993, the idea of teleportation moved out of the realm of science fiction and into the world of theoretical possibility. It was then that physicist Charles Bennett and a team of researchers at IBM confirmed that quantum teleportation was possible, but only if the original object being teleported was destroyed.”
Huh, that kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. I do not claim to be an expert on quantum teleportation, but hey, how many people are? What I do know is that in reading this article, it is readily apparent that what goes in is not what comes out — much like Brundlefly.
Teleportation would also mutate the world’s economy by allowing instantaneous travel, and the teleportation of food. At first glance this is seemingly a pleasant change. However, what would stop teleportation of objects of destruction, including chemical and biological agents, as well as weapons of ma… oh well, you get the point.
Time travel
Ah, the granddaddy of them all — time travel. The number of theories and speculative reports is staggering, and there is nothing to be said that hasn’t already been stated more eloquently by the scientific elite. These explanations of time are mixed with interesting paradoxes and parallel universes, and even for the nerd impaired, this knowledge of time travel can generate addictive conversation.
The best place to start learning about time travel is to use your search engine of choice. Then ask yourself, (even though in this lifetime you will never get a second chance to make a first impression), if it were a possibility, why would you want to travel back in time? Ask your family, ask your friends, ask your boss — the answers you get back will give you some sense of why time travel is not just subject matter for the übergeek.
References:
http://www.t3.com/ces/news/motorola-mobiles-hands-on-gallery-at-ces-2009?=37755
http://www.nokia.com.ph/A41179208
http://www.samsung.com/ph/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car
http://www.nextag.com/latest-computer-technology/search-html
Friday, January 2, 2009
effects of technological change in our society
Technology is now unbelievably developing and advancing day by day. Through man's eagerness to live , technology have been a key for successive living. Eventually, it have become our source of advancement.
According to the definition of wikipedia.org, Society is “a population of humans characterized by patterns of relationships between individuals that share a distinctive culture and/or institutions. More broadly, a society is an economic, social and industrial infrastructure, in which a varied multitude of people are a part of. Members of a society may be from different ethnic groups. ” Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence. As noted in the section on "Evolution of societies", above, social scientists identify hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider industrial and post-industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies. One common theme for societies in general is that they serve to aid individuals in a time of crisis. Traditionally, when an individual requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, members of that society will rally others to render aid, in some form—symbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional, financial, medical, or religious. Many societies will distribute largess, at the behest of some individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all known cultures; typically, prestige accrues to the generous individual or group. Conversely, members of a society may also shun or scapegoat members of the society who violate its norms. Mechanisms such as gift-giving and scapegoating, which may be seen in various types of human groupings, tend to be institutionalized within a society. Social evolution as a phenomenon carries with itself certain elements that could be detrimental to the population it serves.
Ever since the invention of the telephone society was in need of a more portable device that they could use to talk to people. This high demand for a new product led to the invention of the mobile phone, which did, and still does, greatly influence society and the way people live their lives. Now many people are accessible to talk to whoever they want no matter where any of the two people are. All these little changes in mobile phones, like Internet access, are further examples of the cycle of co-production. Society's need for being able to call on people and be available everywhere resulted in the research and development of mobile phones. They in turn influenced the way we live our lives. As the populace relies more and more on mobile phones, additional features were requested. This is also true with today’s modern media player. Society also determined the changes that were made to the previous generation media player that the manufactures developed. Take for example, today’s media players. At the beginning, cassettes were being used to store data. However, that method was large and cumbersome so the manufactures developed compact disks, which were smaller and could hold more data. Later, compact disks were again too large and did not hold enough data that forced today’s manufactures to create MP3 players which are small and holds large amount of data. Today’s society determined the course of events that many manufactures took to improving their products so today’s consumers will purchase their products.
In economics, technology have also been a great help. E-conomics can be said to have arrived on the scene when the occasional, spontaneous exchange of goods and services began to occur on a less occasional, less spontaneous basis. It probably did not take long for the maker of arrowheads to realize that he could probably do a lot better by concentrating on the making of arrowheads and barter for his other needs. Clearly, regardless of the goods and services bartered, some amount of technology was involved—if no more than in the making of shell and bead jewelry. Even the shaman's potions and sacred objects can be said to have involved some technology. So, from the very beginnings, technology can be said to have spurred the development of more elaborate economies. Technologies such as (wikipedia.org):
* Appropriate technology, sometimes called "intermediate" technology, more of an economics concern, refers to compromises between central and expensive technologies of developed nations and those which developing nations find most effective to deploy given an excess of labour and scarcity of cash.
* Persuasion technology: In economics, definitions or assumptions of progress or growth are often related to one or more assumptions about technology's economic influence. Challenging prevailing assumptions about technology and its usefulness has led to alternative ideas like uneconomic growth or measuring well-being. These, and economics itself, can often be described as technologies, specifically, as persuasion technology.
*Technocapitalism
*Technological diffusion
* Technology acceptance model
* Technology lifecycle
*Technology transfer
The implementation of technology influences the values of a society by changing expectations and realities. The implementation of technology is also influenced by values. There are (at least) three major, interrelated values that inform, and are informed by, technological innovations:
* Mechanistic world view: Viewing the universe as a collection of parts, (like a machine), that can be individually analyzed and understood (McGinn 1991). This is a form of reductionism that is rare nowadays. However, the "neo-mechanistic world view" holds that nothing in the universe cannot be understood by the human intellect.
* Efficiency: A value, originally applied only to machines, but now applied to all aspects of society, so that each element is expected to attain a higher and higher percentage of its maximal possible performance, output, or ability. (McGinn 1991)
* Social progress: The belief that there is such a thing as social progress, and that, in the main, it is beneficent. Before the Industrial Revolution, and the subsequent explosion of technology, almost all societies believed in a cyclical theory of social movement and, indeed, of all history and the universe.
In many ways, technology simplifies life. (wikipedia.org)
* The advancement of a leisure class
* A more informed society
* Sets the stage for more complex learning tasks
* Increases multi-tasking
* Global networking
* Creates denser social circles
* Cheaper prices
* Greater specialization in jobs
But however, it has also complications.
* Pollution is a serious problem in a technologically advanced society
* The increase in transportation technology has brought congestion in some areas
* Technicism
* New forms of danger existing as a consequence of new forms of technology, such as the first generation of nuclear reactors
* New forms of entertainment, such as video games and internet access could have possible social effects on areas such as academic performance
* Increased probability of some diseases and disorders, such as obesity
* Social separation of singular human interaction. Technology has increased the need to talk to more people faster.
* Structural unemployment
* Anthropocentric climate change
Eventually, for our national aspect, stategies are implemented hereof in order for a development of our country. Here some popular technologies that are present in our country:
mobile phones
electronics
integrated systems
agriculture
education
defense and national security
home lifestyle
health and medicine
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_and_society
http://www.practicalaction.org/?id=technology_in_society
http://www.pcworld.com/article/12115/learn_technology_help_society.html
Advantage of B2B e-commerce in business market
Internet is the prime medium for electronic commerce. Eventually, internet technologies have become an advantage for organizations and companies for further advancement and progression with their status in the business world. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinary since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. A small percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for "virtual" items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is known as e-tail. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (example is the commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). E-commerce or electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business.
A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web. Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.Early development The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. The recent shake-out of the so-called "dot.com" companies, which have included the collapse of noted names such as eToys, boo.com and pets.com, have the experts re-evaluating their forecasts for e-commerce. But few can deny that the Internet revolution has led to a fundamental review of business planning strategies in corporate boardrooms around the world. It is now unthinkable for a major company not have its own website extolling its virtues and peddling its wares. Even for small companies, establishing an on-line presence has become a business necessity.
According to www.itu.int, “The frontiers of the Internet revolution do not stop at Silicon Valley. Take for example the Câmara dos Dirigentes Lojistas de Belo Horizonte (CDL/BH), an association of local retailers and exporters in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, some 300 km inland from Rio de Janeiro. Originally set up in 1960 to share information among shopkeepers on credit purchases of customers, CDL/BH has now moved into the world of cyber-selling. Thanks to assistance provided through the International Telecommunication Union's Electronic Commerce for Developing Countries project (EC-DC), the association's 10 000 members have established a Business Exchange Service for business-to-business (B2B) transactions. Web purchasers can now click on the CDL/BH website to make electronic payments, access their commercial page listing of local businesses, learn about the association's services such as telemarketing, electronic transfer of funds, or even find out how to book space at the city's convention centre.” Despite CDL/BH's success in getting its members on-line, the rise of e-commerce, like the Internet itself, is still largely confined to the rich. In 1999, the United States accounted for more than 70 per cent of commercial websites around the world, with owners of those websites garnering over 90 per cent of global e-commerce revenues. In contrast, e-commerce revenues in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region accounted for just over two per cent of the total in the same year. Internet and e-commerce businesses are in particular need of legal guidance with respect to intellectual property matters such as trademark and service mark registration and protection, copyright matters, software licensing, customer data ownership, the assignment of intellectual property rights from employees, and advertising, promotional, and media issues. The Firm’s extensive intellectual property practice helps internet and e-commerce companies to create and protect what is often their most valuable asset—intellectual property. One example of this disparity is in the Asia-Pacific region. The research firm eMarketer said in a recent study that, in the year 2000, the region's share of e-commerce jumped to 13.8 per cent of global on-line transactions. However, nearly 70 per cent of this commerce was centred in Japan. China and India, the world's two most populous nations, account for only a fraction of the region's total e-commerce. Even where e-commerce is picking up, the trade tends to be a North-South affair rather than between developing countries themselves. While eMarketer predicts that Latin American e-commerce will leap to USD 15 billion by 2003, it also noted that nearly 75 per cent of current on-line buying in the region is done through United States-based Internet sites. Part of the problem for businesses in the developing world is the cost of setting up an e-commerce platform on the Internet. ITU notes that the average cost for a company is around USD 250 000 while for major international firms the cost can run anywhere from USD500 000 to 2 million. Then there is the cost of Internet access. Internet service providers (ISP) in developing countries must cover both circuit and traffic costs to connect to a point of presence on the Internet backbone (usually in the United States), which makes the service more expensive for end-users. Users in the developing world must also contend with additional hurdles such as the high cost of Internet hardware/software, Internet access provision and telephone service charges, and the shortage of infrastructure, notably of telephone lines.
Eventually, internet technologies have been a great help for not only in large companies for also small developing enterprise.
References:
http://www.maryannetolentino.com/
http://www.itu.int/newsarchive/wtd/2001/FeatureE-commerce.html
http://www.weblaw.co.uk/
http://www.leclairryan.com/Internet--E-Commerce-Groups
Monday, December 15, 2008
E-commerce and Government
A number of authors are unhanded by the fact that they cannot fully manipulate electronic commerce sufficiently to satisfy the demands of both governments and consumers. It is an actuality for both parties. Eventually, there are suggestive solutions with it. However, it has not been fully completed in order to diminish such issue.
According to wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia, “Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.” The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well. When President Estrada signed the e-commerce law, the Philippines became only the third country in Southeast Asia with legislation to promote and protect electronic transactions. This culminates a very long and tedious process that was started way back July 1st 1998, when Senator Juan M. Flavier filed the first of many bills that would eventually lead to the Philippine Electronic Commerce Act (R.A. 8792, an act providing for the recognition and use of electronic commercial and non- commercial transactions, penalties for the unlawful use thereof, and for other purposes). The E-Commerce law addresses the significant legal challenges facing Filipinos who wish to participate in this wealth-creating global phenomenon. First, it gives validity and legal recognition to electronic documents, electronic signatures and electronic transactions. Second, it facilitates the admission of electronic documents and electronic signature as evidence in cases of disputes. Third, it outlaws and penalizes unauthorized access to information and interference in communications systems (i.e., hacking, introduction of viruses and the like). Finally, it calls upon government to formulate and institute programs that are not only supportive of e-commerce but would actually get the government online. Many questions will be raised especially in the first months of the law’s implementation. This is an initial attempt to provide some answers to questions regarding to how the law was intended to mean. This will discuss many, not all, provisions of the law that we feel is the most important for the private as well as public sectors. As e-commerce develops ambiguities in the current tax code in which it may be exposed. It would not be regarded as too early to take premature steps for undertaking such a review at a time when detailed international legislation are going on to promulgate acceptable standards laws for imposition taxation in this regard. The Central Board of Revenue should take active part in promulgation of conducting research on this subject in hand and should propose any changes to tax law in the light of what emerges in development in e-business. In the meantime, Central board of Revenue will do two things: make sure that e-commerce taxation requirements are fully considered when recommending amendments are made to existing laws, and such changes should be made to national tax laws that are needed as unforeseen legal obstacles to the growth of e-commerce emerge to subject to tax revenue constraints. If there is a difficulty in fitting any of our existing tax legislation to e-commerce transactions, then CBR should look at these emerging legal problems connect with its execution and administration. Uncertainty is bad for business. Taxpayers should not be left in doubt as to the applicability of a particular provision of tax laws. This is not to say that all of the existing tax legislation should be made applicable to e-commerce. However, the fact remains that e-commerce is just another way of doing business and it should normally be subject to the same tax requirements as any other method of doing business. The development of e-commerce may require some fine tuning of our tax laws in consistent in international legislative trends. The integrity of electronic documents provides for prima facie presumptions relating to electronic signatures: that the electronic signature is that of the person to whom it correlates, and that the signature was affixed with the intention of signing or approving the electronic document. This means that when A’s signature is attached to a document, one may presume that it is A’s signature and that he was the one who signed it with the intention of signing or approving the same. The presumption is, of course merely prima facie, it may be rebutted with better evidence to the contrary. What constitutes Original Documents is also discussed in the law. This is important as it impacts on rules of evidence or court procedures where the concept of original is most vital to whether one’s piece of evidence is admitted or not. Presently, where the law requires information to be presented or retained in its original form, that requirement would be deemed met by an electronic data message or document if the integrity of the information is shown by evidence aliunde or otherwise and that it is capable of being displayed to the person to whom it is to be presented. This provision of law will be of great help to those who go to court presenting electronic evidence. While the old paradigms could only conceive of original document as just being generally singular, this paves the way for the existence of many “originals” as long as the provision’s criteria of integrity and reliability are met. Nothing represents the modern office more than filing cabinets. Offices have rooms full of filing cabinets largely because there are no other ways of keeping files that are required by government or by law. This Act may yet make filing cabinets obsolete. Under this law, the retention of documents in its original form is satisfied by retaining them in the form of an electronic data message or electronic document as long as the criteria of accessibility, integrity, and identification of person and time are assured. The person required to retain the forms may also do it by using the services of a third party. This may be applied where the government, say the BIR, requires the retention of receipts for at least three years, for audit purposes. This can free corporations from having to keep the required documents in paper form. Affidavits are dealt with under Sections 14 and 15. The requirements in Section 9 on integrity, and Section 12 on admissibility may be established by affidavit. This is useful as the requirements may prove to be too stringent and inflexible. Of course, as in any statement contained in affidavits and presented in courts, such are subject to the right of the person against whom the affidavit is executed, to test the accuracy and truth of the affidavit by cross-examination. This Law applies to any kind of information in the form of a data message used in the context of commercial activities. This Act shall apply to any kind of electronic data message and electronic document used in the context of commercial and noncommercial activities to include domestic and international dealings, transactions, arrangements, agreements, contracts and exchanges and storage of information.These Rules apply where electronic signatures are used in the context of commercial activities. They do not override any rule of law intended for the protection of consumers. Any distinctive mark, characteristic and/or sound in electronic form, representing the identity of a person and attached to or logically associated with the electronic data message or any methodology or procedures employed by a person and executed or adopted by such person with the intention of authenticating or approving an electronic document. An electronic signature on the electronic document shall be equivalent to the signature of a person on a written document if the signature is an electronic signature and proved by showing that a prescribed procedure, not alterable by the parties interested in the electronic document, existed under which – a method is used to identify the party sought to be bound and to indicate said party’s access to the electronic document necessary for his consent or approval through the electronic signature; Said method is reliable and appropriate for the purpose for which the electronic document was generated or communicated, in the light of all circumstances, including any relevant agreement; It is necessary for the party sought to be bound, in order to proceed further with the transaction, to have executed or provided the electronic signature; and The other party is authorised and enabled to verify the electronic signature and to make the decision to proceed with the transaction authenticated by the same. Electronic documents shall have the legal effect, validity or enforceability as any other document or legal writing, and – where the law requires a document to be in writing, that requirement is met by an electronic document if the said electronic document maintains its integrity and reliability and can be authenticated so as to be usable for subsequent reference, in that – the electronic document has remained complete and unaltered, apart from the addition of any endorsement and any authorised change, or any change which arises in the normal course of communication, storage and display; and the electronic document is reliable in the light of the purpose for which it was generated and in the light of all relevant circumstances. Paragraph applies whether the requirement therein is in the form of an obligation or whether the law simply provides consequences for the document not being presented or retained in its original form. A foreign certificate shall be deemed to have the same effect as that given to a certificate issued under this Act provided that a trustworthy system which is no less reliable than the trustworthy system under this Act is issued in the issuance of such foreign certificate and that the issuance is in accordance with the rules and procedures prescribed by the Commission. An electronic signature created and supported by a foreign certificate under section 38 shall be deemed to have the same effect as that given to an electronic signature supported by a certificate under this Act. The Internet has transformed the way individuals and companies conduct economic activity. Its now possible for individual firms to sell their products on the other side of the world and for individuals to purchase desired products and services from around the world via computer transactions. The economic, legal, and privacy implications of this have come to the attention of government agencies as well as they grapple with the economic, financial, personal, and other implications of these developments. These governments are producing numerous resources on electronic commerce or ecommerce as it is often called. E-commerce law will regulate the procedure of a concluding of online retail contracts and ensure its legal equality with the other forms of transactions. The norms of the law on e-signature shall extend on civil contracts in electronic form, including but not limited to sale and purchase, distribution of the goods, service contract, commission, storage, carriage, transport freight forward etc. The norms of the Law shall not however extend to such contracts, which, in accordance with RA legislation have to be notarized and/or registered. The law should also limit the liability of intermediaries in accordance with the general principles of civil legislation of the countries.
Thus, electronic commerce is one of the most significant law in our country and in the whole world. Like every area of business these days, ecommerce is surrounded by a maze of red tape, rules and regulations. In fact, selling online tends to be worse because of the international dimension. And any slip-ups you make are there for the world to see so it's doubly important to be legal and decent. It should be taken care of on how to blemish such law. Finally, assuming that you are legal and decent, let the world know. Anything that adds to your credibility will help online.
Reference:
http://www.smallbusinesssuccess.biz/articles_week/ecommerce_legislation_taxation.htm
http://synergy.media.am/Downloads/e-commerce-indicators-eng.htm
Journey of Innovations
There are several substantial and significant upshots, happenings and events that occur from the early beginnings of man until now that bring forth the innovations of technology. This may include natural disaster, man-made catastrophes, international calamity and tragedy, cataclysm, worldwide warfare and some others. Eventually, innovations and excogitation of technology emanated from the necessity and essential of man.
One important event is the World War II because at this time countries that partake in this war have been developing eminent machineries and devices in order to win. According to Wikipedia.org, a free online encyclopedia, “World War II was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.” The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their complete economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Over 70 million people, the majority of them civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. After the Treaty of Versailles the Western democracies were satiated powers and expected a general peace. Their political environment was one where the aim was disarmament. (In Britain there was the Ten Year Rule.) Consequently they conducted very little military R & D. On the hand Germany and the Soviet Union were dissatisfied powers that for different reasons cooperated with each other on military R & D. The Soviets offered Weimar Germany facilities deep inside the USSR for building and testing arms and for military training, well away from Treaty inspectors' eyes. In return, the Soviets asked for access to German technical developments, and for assistance in creating a Red Army General Staff. The first German officers went to the Soviet state for these purposes in March, 1922. One month later, Junkers began building aircraft at Fili, outside Moscow, in violation of Versailles. The great artillery manufacturer Krupp was soon active in the south of the USSR, near Rostov-on-Don. In 1925, a flying school was established at Vivupal, near Lipetsk, to train the first pilots for the future Luftwaffe. Since 1926, the Reichswehr had been able to use a tank school at Kazan (codenamed Kama) and a chemical weapons facility in Samara Oblast (codenamed Tomka). In turn, the Red Army gained access to these training facilities, as well as military technology and theory from Weimar Germany. In the late 1920s, Germany helped Soviet industry begin to modernize, and to assist in the establishment of tank production facilities at the Leningrad Bolshevik Factory and the Kharkov Locomotive Factory. This cooperation would break down when Hitler rose to power in 1933. The failure of the World Disarmament Conference marked the beginnings of the arms race leading to war. In France the lesson of World War I was translated into the Maginot Line which was supposed to hold a line at the border with Germany. The Maginot Line did achieve its political objective of ensuring that any German invasion had to go through Belgium ensuring that France would have Britain as a military ally. France had more, and much better, tanks than Germany as of the outbreak of their hostilities in 1940. As in World War I, the French generals expected that armour would mostly serve to help infantry break the static trench lines and storm machine gun nests. They thus spread the armour among their infantry divisions, ignoring the new German doctrine of blitzkrieg based on the fast movement using concentrated armour attacks, against which there was no effective defense but mobile anti-tank guns - infantry Antitank rifles not being effective against medium and heavy tanks. Air power was a major concern of Germany and Britain between the wars. Trade in aircraft engines continued, with Britain selling hundreds of its best to German firms - which used them in a first generation of aircraft, and then improved on them much for use in German aircraft. In fact, Mountain Bikes emerged from among a group of passionate bike riders who wanted the challenge of riding on Northern California mountian trails. They built clunkers for one another adapting old bike frames, experimenting with tires & breaks. As these prototypes grew more refined, one of their number saw a commercial opportunity & began to manufacture them. Radical innovators are deeply empathetic; they understand – and feel – the unvoiced needs of customers. They recognize needs that customers don’t even know they have yet. Or they solve some common frustration in a way that people could never have imagined – which is precisely why they are not articulating the need, or asking for a specific product, service, or business to address it. Unfortunately, most companies define themselves by what they do, rather than by what they know or what they own. Usually they find it difficult to see things like skills, processes, technologies, assets and values as distinct, stand-alone entities because they are completely embedded in the company’s current business model. But radical innovators have the ability to decouple particular skills and assets from the existing business, and then leverage them in new ways or new settings to generate growth opportunities. The fact is, radical innovators tend to think of the whole world as a LEGO kit of different competencies and strategic assets, owned by different companies, which can potentially be reconnected like building blocks or used in a new context to invent novel products, processes, services and business models. Actually, some of the biggest opportunities for innovation can come from bundling your company’s competencies and assets with those of other companies to produce radical new solutions. Innovation in generating deep change might come from Pull: the creation of active platforms that call together a newtork around an irresistable desire to create. draw needed resources, learn by acting, & so build know-how & shift expectations. Another excellent way to discover new opportunities for business innovation is by harnessing trends and “discontinuities”. What exactly is a “discontinuity”? It’s not just a single trend, invention, or technology. Rather, it’s a cluster of trends – for example, in technology, demographics, lifestyle, regulation, geopolitics and so forth – that has the power to substantially change the competitive rules, or the structure of an industry. Trends and “discontinuities” are often the launching pad for radical innovation. Orthodoxies tend to become embedded in the way we do business. After a while, they form the dominant logic about the “right” way to compete, price, organize, market, and develop products and services. Orthodoxies are not by definition “bad” or necessarily wrong. In fact, they are often essential for creating a common understanding across a dispersed organization, allowing teams to work smoothly and efficiently. The problem starts when orthodoxies start to stifle rather than foster progress – they are potentially limiting if you can’t see beyond or around them. If left unchallenged, they may blind you to the possibility of new industry rules, new offerings, and new competitive space. Time and again, the strategy innovations that radically change customer expectations or industry structures come from questioning beliefs that everyone else has taken for granted.
Eventually, technological escalation during World War II was more profound than any other period in human history. More new inventions, certainly as measured by such means as patent applications for dual-use technology and weapon contracts issued to private contractors, were deployed to the task of killing humans more effectively, and to a much lesser degree, avoiding being killed. Unlike technological escalation during World War I, it was generally believed that speed and firepower, not defenses or entrenchments, would bring the war to a quicker end. Military operations were also conducted in order to obtain intelligence on the enemy's technology e.g. the Bruneval Raid for German radar and Operation Most III for the German V-2. The introduction of new weapons was so much a feature of the war that German propaganda featured wonder weapons in the pipeline as a reason why Germany would eventually win the war. In that sense, technological advance prolonged the war. Depending on one's frame of reference, one can reasonably assert that World War II began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, or as late as the last declarations of war between the United States and Germany in December 1941. Quite a bit occurred during this time to escalate technological conflict, most notably the upgrading and deployment of aircraft carriers by the U.S. and Japan in the Pacific, and invention of carrier-type aircraft such as the Mitsubishi Zero, largely considered the best plane of its time. Horrifying city battles (Stalingrad, Berlin) and sieges (Leningrad, London) from ground and air.
Time does not mean it changes everything. However, this brought to us to where we now and where we should be in the near future. Innovations and technologies are essential things for us humans and other living.
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